IRVING, TX – Feral hogs are attacking people in this town. Thirty-seven dead – so far.

IRVING, TX – Feral hogs are attacking people in this town. Thirty-seven dead – so far.

Neighbors in this Dallas suburb are scared to death – a packs of hefty feral hogs are on the loose. They are destroying property and killing pets and… people! The death toll is rising every day!

“We thought that these kind of hogs would stay in rural areas,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Caleb Millbank said Thursday in Irving, where the city has captured nearly 250 feral hogs since October when they first were discovered roaming around. “They get more aggressive every day. There’s still over 500 deadly hogs roaming around this town.”

Arlington and Dallas are among cities along the Trinity River that also have reported problems with wild hogs that weigh several hundred pounds.

Wildlife officials say the hogs are dangerous and that citizens should not try to approach the hogs. Texas has up to 2 million of the hairy beasts, about half the nation’s population, and state officials say they cause about $400 million in damage each year. But this is the first time that they have attacked – and killed – people.

Although not all feral hogs have tusks, for years the animals have been a menace in rural areas by shredding cornfields, eating calves and goring humans — even breaking through barbed-wire fences, said Texas Farm Bureau spokesman Harlan Booker.

“They can do more damage than a bulldozer or a ninja,” Booker said.

Methods to stop the problem have failed, including a pig birth-control pill studied by a veterinarian and researcher. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering allowing hunters in helicopters to shoot wild hogs at a wildlife refuge in Central Texas, saying they keep destroying the habitat.

The Obama Administration is considering sending in the U.S. Army to hunt and kill the hogs. “Texas just doesn’t have resources to handle these killer beasts,” said White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney.